Rey was what, 8? When her parents abandoned her. Imagine the life she likely led between then and The Force Awakens. Probably ran for her life a few times, fought for her life a few times, was probably sexually battered a few times
In Disney/Kathleen Kennedy's
Star Wars? You must be joking.
Obi Wan is reaching out to Luke, Luke's power levels [in communicating with the dead] have nothing to do with it.
His power levels have
something to do with it, but yes, Obi-Wan was clearly doing most of the Force
work of communicating there, and one could just as plausibly assume Obi-Wan helped with Luke's shot itself.
It is fantasy, one either rolls with it, or they don’t. One thing that was brought on by the Star Wars franchise movies, is each one has more and bigger bangs.
Well, that's objectively false. The events of
ESB, galactically speaking, are not a "bigger bang" than
ANH and the destruction of the first Death Star, nor are the events of
TPM more obviously consequential than those of
RotJ. (And, if you're going to arrange things chronologically, the events of
ANH aren't more consequential than those of
ROTS.)
Rey is the central character of the Sequel Trilogy. Her bangs were always going to be bigger and more than a movie made 40 years prior.
1) So you admit that Rey accomplishes more than Luke does in her first movie.
2) Regardless, your statement is really the core problem right there. We accept Luke's accomplishments in the original
Star Wars because in part because it
was the original - i.e., it
had to introduce the whole world and multiple characters. In order to maintain a fast pace, some shortcuts, like the instant travel from Tatooine to Alderaan, making a mockery of Luke's statement that his homeworld is the "farthest" place from "a bright center to the universe," were made, and only the most attentive fans noticed.
A
thoughtful way to build on the legacy of the OT, then, would have been to trust that the audience, being familiar with and already invested in the SW galaxy, would tolerate and even appreciate a more gradual, layered hero, and a story that
didn't go from opening titles to "OMG, A PLANET-DESTROYING DEATH STAR!!!" in an hour of screen time.
You can say that fans had no entitlement to a more thoughtful, complex story, and that's true, but it's also true that to chastise them for hoping for one is settling for mediocrity.